Page 162 - Records of Bahrain (1) (i)_Neat

152 Records of Bahrain

11G PEARL FISHERY.

calm, sultry, and dense, by keeping the water
free from agitation and clear, was particularly
favourable.
I again quote from Major Wilson’s most
interesting paper. “ The fishing-season is
divided into two portions, the one called the
short and cold, the other the long and hot;
what is called the short or cold fishery is com­
mon everywhere. In the cooler weather* of the
month of June diving is practised along the
coast in shallow water; and it is not until the
intensely hot months of July, August, and half
of September, that the Bharain banks above
mentioned are much frequented. The water
on them is deeper (about seven fathoms), and
the divers are much inconvenienced when that
element is cold; indeed they can do little when
it is not as warm as the air, and it frequently
becomes even more so in the hottest months of
the summer above-mentioned.”
The value of the whole pearl fishery in the
Persian Gulf may be estimated in round num­
bers at nearly half a million (sterling) annually.
The use of pearls, however, seems somewhat on
the decline. By the ancients they appear' to
have been more valued than by the moderns.
I again quote from Colonel Wilson. “ I have
not admitted in the above estimate much more